Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1887-07-22
TALMAGES SERMON.
The Weekly Discourse of the Great
Brooklyn Preacher.

TEXT: me time or my departure IS al
hand.-I Timothy iv., q.
The way out of this world is so blocked up
with coffin and hearse, and undertaker's
spade and screwdriver, that the Christian can
hardly think rs he ought of the most cheerful
passage in all his history. We hang black
instead of white over the place where the
good man gets his last victory We stand
weeping over heap of chains which the freed
soul has shaken off, and we say: Poor
mani What a pity it was he had to come
to thisln Come to whatf By the time
the people have assembled at the obsequies
the man has been three days so happy
that all the joy of earth accumulated
would be wTetchedness beside it, and he
might better weep over you because you
have to stay, than you weep over him be-
cause he has to GO 1t is q fortunate
thing that good man does not have to wait
to see his own obsequies, they would be so
discordant with his own experience. If the
lsraelites should go back to Egypt and mourn
over the brick kilns they once left, they would
not be any more silly than that Christian
who should fOrsake heaven and come down
and mourn because he had to leave this
world. Our ideas of the Christians death
are morbid and sickly. We look upon it as
dark hole, in which a man stumbles when his
breath gives out. This whole subject is odor-
GUS with varnish and disinfectants, instead of
being sweet with nignonette. Paul, in my
text takes that great clod of word, death"
and throws it away, and speaks of his de
parturen-a beautiful, bright, suggestive
word descriptive of every Christians re-
lease.
Now, departure implies starting place
and q place of destination. When Paul left
this world what was the starting point9 1t
was scene of great physical distress. 1t was
the Tullianum, the lower dungeon of the
Mamertine prison. The top dungeon was
ho1 hn,
egress but through an opening in the top.
Through that the prisoner was lowered, and
through that came all the food and air and
light received. 1t was q terrible place, that
upper dungeon; but the Tullianum was
the lower dungeon, and that was still
more wretched, the only light and the
only air coming through the roof, and that
roof the floor of the upper dungeon That
was Paurs last earthly residence. 1t was a
dungeon just six feet and half high. 1t was
a doleful place. 1t had the chill of long
centuries of dampnesS. 1t was filthy with the
long incarceration of miserable wretches. 1t
was there that Paul spent his last days on
earth, and it is there that l see him to-day,
in the fearful dungeon, shivering, blue with
the cold, waiting for that old overcoat which
he had sent for up to Troas, and which they
had not yet sent down, notwithstanding he
had written for it.
If some skilful surgeon should go into that
dungeon where Paul is incarcerated we might
find out what are the prospects of Pauls liv-
ing through the rough Imprisonment In the
first place, he is an old man, only two years
short of seventy. At that very time when he
most needs the warmth and the sunlight, and
the fresh air, he is shut out from the sun.
What are those scars on his ankles! Why
those were gotten when he was fast, his feet
in the stocks. Every time he turned the
flesh on mis- ankles started. What are
those scars on his back! You know he
was whipped five times, each time getting
thirty-nine strokes-l95 bruises on the
back count themD made by the Jews with
rods of elmwood, each one of the 1875 strokes
bringing the blood. Look at Paul's face and
look at his arms. W here did he get those
bruises! | think it was when he was strug
Cling ashore amidst the shivere1 timbers of
the shipwreck. l see a cash in Pauls side
| Where did he get that? / think he got that
in the tussel with highwaymen, for he had
been in peril of robbers and he had money Of
his own He was mechanic as well as an
| apostle, and think the tents he made were
as good as his sermons.
There was a wanness about Paul's looks
| What makes that! l think a part of that
came from the fact that he was for
twenty-four hours on a plank in the
| fore he was rescued; for he says posi-
| lively: II was q night and day in the
| deep" Oh, worn out emaciated old
man! surely you must be melancholy
| No constitution could endure this and be
cheerful But | press my way through the
prison until come up close to where he is,
| and by the faint light that streams through
the opening see on his face a supernatural
| JOY, and l bow before him, and l say:
Aged man, how can you keep cheerful
amidst all this gloomF' His voice startles
the darkness of the place as he
cries out; 81 am now ready to be
offered, and the time of my departure is at
hand" Hark! what is that shuttling of feet
IA the upper dungeonl Why, Paul has an
invitation to banquet, and lie is going to
dine to day with the king Those
shutting feet are the feet of the execu-
tioners. They come, and they cry down
through the hole of the dungeron: Hurry
up, old man. Come now; get yourself
ready" Why, Paul was ready. He had
nothing to pack up. He had no baggage to
take. He had been ready gooi while
see him rising up, and Strengthening out
his stiffened limbs, and pushing back his
white hair from his creviced forehead, and
l see him looking up through the hole in the
roof of the dungeon into the face of his
execution, and hear him say: 81 am
now ready TO be offered, at the time Of
my departure is at hand" Then they lift
him out of the dungeon, and they start
! Will illll W but pldCG VI OACSuOIOh AASy
say; Hurry along, old man, OF you will
feel the weight of our spear. Hurry
along.n Chow far is it," says Paul, I'VE
have to trayelp "Three miles, Three
miles is good way for an old
man to travel after he has beer
whipped and crippled with NAL
treatment But they soon get to the place
of xecution-Acquae Talvia-and he Il
fastened to the pillar of martyrdom. II
does not take any strength to tie him fast
He makes no resistance. o Paul. why
not strike for your life! You have a great
many friends here With that withered
hand just launch the thunderbolt of the peo
pie upon these infamous soldiers. No! Pau
was not going to interfere with his own coro
nation. He was too glad to go. see hin
looking up into the face of his executioner
and, as the grim official draws the sword
Paul calmly saws: 'I am now ready to bt
offered, and the time of my departure il
at hand.n But l put my hand over my
eyes [ want not to see that last struggle
One sharp, keen stroke, and Paul does 60 t.
the banquet and Paul does dine with TIN
King.
What a transition it was! From tn
malaria of Rome to the finest climate il
oil the universe-the zone of eterna
beauty and health. His ashes were pu
in the catacombs of Rome, but in on
moment the air of heaven bathed iron
his soul the last ache. From shipwreck
from dungeon, from the biting pain of tn
elm-wood rods, from the sharp sword o
In9 headsman, he goes into the most brillian
assembage of heaven king among kings
multitudes of the sainthood rushing out an
stretching forth hands of welcome; for ]
really think that as on the right hand of Co
is Christ, so on the right hand of Christ
Paul. the second great in heaven.
He changed kings likewise. Before tn
hour of death and up to the last momen
he was under Nero, the thick necked, tn
cruel eyed, the filthy Tipped; the sculpture
features of that man bringing dow